High Wycombe

High Wycombe is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. A Roman villa was built near the present-day town, whose name means "Wooded valley along the River Wye". High Wycombe is located 29 miles northwest of London, 13.2 miles southeast of Aylesbury, 23.4 miles southeast of Oxford, 15.4 miles northeast of Reading, and 7.7 miles north of Maidenhead, and, in December 902, King Edward the Elder's West Saxon army encamped at High Wycombe before the Battle of the Holme. The town evolved into a market borough in 1222, and its first meeting hall was built in 1226, followed by a market hall in 1476. It was a mill town during the Middle Ages and Renaissance eras, and it became famous for its furniture industry during the 19th century; during that same century, future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli served as the Radical MP for High Wycombe. The population grew from 13,000 residents in 1881 to 29,000 in 1928, and the decline of the furniture industry during the 1960s led to widespread unemployment and social problems in the town. In 2016, High Wycombe had a population of 125,527 people.